News from NCEES

NOTICE OF FUTURE CHANGE TO THE NCEES STRUCTURAL EXAMINATION

Effective with the April 2011 exam administration, NCEES will offer a new 16-hour Structural exam. The existing NCEES Structural I and Structural II exams will be offered for the last time with the October 2010 exam administration. The purpose of this early notice is to provide as much notice as possible so that the transition from the existing Structural I and Structural II format to the new 16-hour Structural exam format may proceed in a seamless and straightforward manner.

Structural 16-hour Examination Format

The Structural 16-hour exam will be a breadth-and-depth examination offered in two 8-hour components on successive days. The 8-hour Vertical Forces (Gravity/Other) and Incidental Lateral component will focus on gravity loads and incidental lateral loads; it will be offered only on the Friday of NCEES exam administration dates. The 8-hour Lateral Forces (Wind/Earthquake) component will focus on wind and earthquake loads; it will be offered only on the Saturday of NCEES exam administration dates.

To pass the Structural 16-hour exam, examinees must pass both components. The components may be taken and passed in different exam administrations. The proposed changes will state that passing only one 8-hour component shall not be sufficient for licensure purposes and will be voted on at the 2009 annual meeting in August.

Each component of the Structural 16-hour exam will have a breadth module in the morning and a depth module in the afternoon.

Breadth Module (morning session): This module will contain questions covering a comprehensive range of structural engineering topics. All questions will be multiple-choice.

Depth Modules (afternoon session): These modules will focus more closely on a single area of practice in structural engineering. Examinees must choose either buildings or bridges. Examinees must work the same topic area on both components. That is, if buildings are the topic area chosen in the Vertical Forces component, then buildings must be the topic area chosen in the Lateral Forces component. All questions will be constructed response (essay).

Examinees must take the breadth module of each component and one of the two depth modules in each component.

A new edition of the NCEES sample questions and solutions will be available in 2010.

ANSI recognizes NCEES Model Law Engineer standard

NCEES has been granted its first approved standard with the American National Standards Institute.

The standard, the Model Law Engineer (MLE), outlines the requirements for attaining licensure as a professional engineer. It is used by NCEES as a guideline for its member licensing boards, which grant licensure to engineers and surveyors in all 50 states and several U.S. territories. Prior to being approved as a standard by the ANSI Board of Standards Review, the MLE was published on the NCEES home page and in ANSI's Standards Review and open to public comment. ANSI is the U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

"With the MLE now being an ANSI-recognized standard, NCEES is in an excellent position to promote licensure as the best way to ensure professional competence,” said Jerry Carter, NCEES executive director. "We look forward to promoting the use of this standard across industry, government and academia. This will lead to greater uniformity in credentials and enhanced protection for the public.”

The MLE standard describes the minimum criteria for licensure as a professional engineer. The criteria are divided into education, professional experience and examinations.